The present invention is directed to a method for emphasizing at least one portion of an area of a subject in a scanning microscope wherein the method of scanning includes conducting a particle probe of the microscope line-by-line over the area of the subject during scanning with a given step size in both the x and y directions and reproducing an image on an image recording device utilizing the same step size.
At the present, available scanning electron microscopes have both a particle probe and an image recording device which have scanning beams that scan an area in the x and y direction with a given step size of .DELTA.x and .DELTA.y. Thus, both the probe and recording device scan in a line-by-line manner with the same scanning speed along each line and the same spacing between lines. An example of the method is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,012 which is incorporated by reference thereto.
Due to the regularity of the structures within an integrated circuit, it is desirable when seeking the measuring locations provided for checking the integrated circuits with an electron beam measuring installation to be able to reorient oneself with an overall view of the integrated circuit when observing small portions of the integrated circuit. Up to now, this problem was resolved by utilizing commercially available scanning electron microscopic devices which, as an orientation aid, have the possibility of offering a reproduction of a subject in two different sizes. Given such a known device, the selected portion of the area of the subject of interest can be selected on the basis of an overall image of the subject to be investigated with the assistance of a frame or image which is an overall image and then the portion of the subject which is of interest is then enlarged.